FFA AG-Ventures Tent

Explore the world of FFA with interactive exhibits! There will activities like watermelon detectives, soybean life cycle, soy products, farm-to-table process, and how to measure the height of a horse!

Station 1: Watermelon DetectivesFarmer Dave is a watermelon farmer in Laurel, Delaware. When he received his watermelon plants this spring, they were not labeled with what variety they are. As the melons began to develop, Farmer Dave could not remember which variety was which. Students will use various forms of measurement and observation to determine which variety of watermelon Farmer Dave was sent.

Station 2: Super SoybeansDid you know that soybeans are used for more than just animal feed? Did you know that Delaware grew over 7 million bushels of soybeans in 2018? Students will learn about the life cycle of a soybean from bean to plant, will have the opportunity to explore everyday products made from soy, and can hang out in the soy bean pit. Questions about soy products will be hidden in the pit. When students find the question, they will try to answer it in order to have their scavenger hunt box checked for that station.

Station 3: Farm to Fair- How long does it take to make your favorite fair foods?Students will investigate how long it takes to grow the ingredients in their favorite fair foods. Choices include a Kirby and Holloway scrapple sandwich, Pete’s Pizza, and an apple dumpling from K & R Concessions. Students will use laminated pictures of individual ingredients to assemble their favorite fair food. They will then need to refer to a table provided on station signage to see how long it took to produce each ingredient. Students will use scratch paper to add up the number of months it took to grow each ingredient to see how many months total it took to produce their favorite food. Additional fair foods will be included on the signage, including cotton candy, candy apples, corn dogs, and more. Students will write their favorite fair food and how long it took to produce it in the correct space on their scavenger hunt papers.

Station 4: Powerful PollinatorsStudents will learn about the importance of pollinators to the Delaware Agriculture industry and will simulate being pollinators themselves. They will learn about pollination itself, what kinds of crops require assistance when pollinating, and how those insects get the job done. Students will float from flower to flower, picking up and dropping off pollen each time they land. Flowers will be buckets with pre-colored pasta or pompoms. Each bucket will be a different color. When the “pollinators” visit a flower, they will pick up a few of the colored items inside. They will then go visit another flower. Before they can pick up more pollen, they have to drop what they collected at the last flower. As they visit flowers, the colors will begin to mix to illustrate how pollinators do their jobs.

Station 5: The Importance of TreesStudents will investigate how trees grow, how they are affected by factors within their environment, and about all of the products made by trees. Students may have the opportunity to take home their own sapling donated by the Forest Service. This lesson will be modeled after the Project Learning Tree curriculum.